A Photographer, Basketballer, and… now Historian.

Let’s talk about Nördlingen, Germany.

One of the most unique and fascinating towns I have visited: Nördlingen, Germany. This small town in Bavaria / Southern Germany is packed with history, geology, and even some Hollywood.

Here is the rundown:

• 15 million years ago, a meteorite struck southern Germany, leaving behind a massive 25km-wide crater. The impact was so intense that it turned graphite into millions of tiny diamonds—so small they’re less than 0.2mm in size. 

Nördlingen town map

• In 898, (yes 898. I didn't miss a 1 at the front.),  people decided, why not build a town here?  I don’t think they realised it was in the crater. But they did. (Cool of them) (And yes that means the town is in shape of a circle- as you can see from the town map here)

• The stone from the meteorite became the building material for the town’s circular wall. That means millions of tiny diamonds are embedded in the wall and other medieval buildings to the city.

• Fast forward to the 1600s, when the town became a battleground during two wars. The 2.7km-long wall protected the residents and is remarkably well-preserved today. Today, you can walk the entire circle of the town on this historic wall.

MBC Team in Nördlinge

Fast Forward to this Century…

• Around 20,000 people live here.

• Including a professional basketball team (hence why we were there, side note- we won the quarter finals. Thanks for having us Angels!)

• US astronauts trained here before the first moon landing because of the extraterrestrial rock formations. (Cool !?!?!)

• Do you remember the last scene of Willy Wonka? Where Charlie, Grandpa and Willy Wonka exit the factory in the glass elevator. They look back down over the town and guess what town it is?  Have a guessssss. (You are correct!!!). I have linked the youtube link here to save you the 15 seconds of leaving this blog post to go to youtube... (Here). A lot of people don’t know this-, but it just goes to show what deep diving into online travel blogs can do.

Photographer, Basketballer, Historian. Has a nice ring to it.

On that note.. Thank you for listening and I hope you learn something from this quick blog (I definitely didn't miss any milestones or dates).